


Reading People

by Tetherwick



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010), Varian and the Seven Kingdoms
Genre: Blood and Injury, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, No beta we die like mne, Whump, and by love i mean ruining a perfectly good princess, and varian has blood loss, big brother varian, but im getting ahead of myself, hugo is also emotionally constipated, hugo is the medic of the group, i just see very little about the starseer girl and wanted to share the love, look at her, more like hurt/panic/storytime/comfort, nuru has trust issues, nuru is thrown under the struggle bus, she has anxiety, this is not nuru/varian i swear, yong is a fire cracker in more ways than one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:02:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27239245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tetherwick/pseuds/Tetherwick
Summary: Nuru hated reading people. Reading people was not like reading the night sky; there were no charts to follow and they never ever stopped changing.One moment you think you know who sat beside you and ate baked apple porridge for breakfast with laughs with a clear vision of the day ahead and the next you are running for your life from a band of low brow thugs intent on taking in the very person who made breakfast, for ATTEMPTED MURDER, TREASON, AND REGICIDE.And the real kicker? THEY WEREN’T AFTER THE BLOODY THIEF!!!
Relationships: Hugo & Nuru & Varian & Yong (Disney: Varian and the Seven Kingdoms), Hugo/Varian (Disney: Varian and the Seven Kingdoms)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 102





	1. Chapter 1

Nuru hated reading people. Reading people was not like reading the night sky; there were no charts to follow and they never ever stopped changing.

One moment you think you know who sat beside you and ate baked apple porridge for breakfast with laughs and a clear vision of the day ahead and the next you are running for your life from a band of low brow thugs intent on taking in the very person who made breakfast, for ATTEMPTED MURDER, TREASON, AND REGICIDE.

And the real kicker? THEY WEREN’T AFTER THE BLOODY THIEF!!!

Noooo they didn’t want to capture Hugo, the obvious choice with his canary-feathered grin and kleptomaniacal tendencies. No, far too easy, he is obviously innocent, no…

They were after Varian.

Sweet, kind, soft spoken Varian. The dorky kid hailing from the literal kingdom of sunshine. The boy who never shut up about science and spouted well meaning, if naive, theories about the world and how to improve it.

The boy who, apparently, committed atrocities back in his home kingdom so heinous, the royal family deemed it necessary to spread his wanted posters as far as THREE KINGDOMS AWAY.

The boy who was now gallivanting with a thief (of whom he personally sponsored into the group), a princess who is desperate to do almost anything to save her people from astral destruction, and an impressionable young boy with dreams fed by the alleged convict in question. All in the name of a half baked quest to rediscover an infinite library where everyone’s questions could be answered.

She had learned what the beginnings of a cult looked like in her tutoring and yet here she was…

Upon that note of Nuru’s inner monologue, she vented off a long hissing sigh through clenched teeth as she side stepped another cropping of rocks on their meandering path back to camp.

Oh, right, she had forgotten to bring into account that it was currently said ~~friend’s~~ felon’s fault that this misguided group was now split in half and trying to take the long way back to avoid being followed.

Did she mention to herself that this criminal was walking back to their campsite with her?

Alone.

With no potential means of defending herself outside her wits.

Stars knew what she would do after they got back to camp…

A startled yelp and thud snapped the princess from her furious thoughts, self preservation spinning her on her heels towards the source of the noise behind her.

Varian was hunched over nearly on all fours if not for his staff. The air thickened as the princess turned fully towards the alchemist with her spine straight and head held high.

“What? Is this leisurely pace back to camp too hard now that your sins are crawling on your back?” Normally, Nuru the diplomat would’ve stopped and thought better of her words before voicing them but anger was at the helm right now and it was snapping the reigns with gusto.

“Nuru I-“ Varian began, working himself to a kneeling position.

“Oh don’t you start Varian! After what just happened, you don’t have the right to grovel!” Nuru’s voice ramped up in volume, arms swinging wildly as she paced. “We were stalked, ambushed, and nearly killed because of you- who knows if Hugo and Yong are safe after we split up! How we even got away is beyond me, but do you know what really has me stumped?” She ranted.

“I keep trying to understand how you and-and this,” she thrust the poster toward the boy, “Can be one and the same unless you truly are that versed in lying. I thought you were Corona’s ‘Royal Engineer,’ but this royal-sanctioned decree is calling you the ‘Plague of Old Corona.’ So I’m going to ask you myself right now and I expect a clear answer. WHO ARE YOU?!”

Varian lowered his head with a shuddering sigh as he swayed to his feet. Bare knuckles clutched around the remnants of his empty staff as his form, smaller than she’d ever seen it, slowly faced away from the fuming princess.

“Both.”

That one reedy word traveled so quietly. She almost mistook it for the autumn wind in the trees. Instead, it was the breeze that carried the silence as he walked away.

She didn’t know how to respond. With no rebuttal prepared for that one word, Nuru’s runaway train of thought screeched to a stop. Her empty hand lifted hesitantly, as if to try to call him back to the conversation that was very clearly over. The princess dropped onto a neighboring boulder with a huff, her shoulders sagging.

She was right to be angry, wasn’t she? Nuru had spent nearly four moons accompanying these three boys on a quest for knowledge with only their word as their bond. Until today, words were enough, but after having a dagger swung in her face for the largely unknown transgressions of an acquaintance, she has begun to wonder if she’d been strung along for her title and navigation skills. A reasonable conclusion, right?

Her gaze found the wanted poster in her limp grasp. She traced the deep seated scowl that adorned the face depicted on the parchment.

An entirely too-young face that did not match the entirely too-old bow in the shoulders of the receding boy as his form was lost to the tree line down hill.

Shame began to gnaw at Nuru’s heart as her rage subsided, dropping her eyes to the rocky path dotted… with red?

She focused on the rocks varian had knelt by and sure enough, there were several small splotches of red. Reaching out a tentative finger to confirm her suspicions, it smeared into the dry stone with a brilliant sticky crimson that she wished she wasn’t familiar with.

Nuru fought off the wave of worry that began to nip her heels to follow him, stubbornly holding her mental ground. He probably scraped his knee or something in the scuffle. She was sure he could handle something that small on his own, he’s come far in the last few months coping with his fear of blood.

Her eyes flicked from the droplets at her feet back towards the way they came.

Freezing coals of dread smoldered in her stomach at the trail of crimson. A dotted line that connected among the two sets of footprints, to the path only Varian left behind.


	2. Chapter 2

Nuru was never very sure-footed in woodland areas like the one she was currently racing through. The current unconscious theory was that shifting debris and branches undertow wouldn’t really matter if she stepped off them quickly enough. Nothing mattered more than the plips of blood that dotted the blanket of gold birch leaves with more frequency the further she followed them.

In reality, it must have taken her a few short minutes for her to pick up on shuffling foot falls up ahead, but try telling that to the noble girl’s lungs.

Between pants, she registered the sudden absence of said footfalls and rhythmic clinking, prompting to slow her pace.

“Varian?” Nuru called, straining her ears for a response.

Her answer was a muffled thud and metal clattering on stone.

“Varian!?” Her feet moved faster this time.

So fast she would’ve accidentally passed him if not for the discarded staff that wedged itself between the stones and trees, prompting the girl to grab at it and swing to a stop.

The boy was already attempting to stand again with a drawn out grown, from exertion or her presence, it didn’t matter. What did matter was the glimpse of a growing dark stain over varian’s left side as he sheepishly turned towards the princess. An ugly wrongness took the place of the fear in her gut. He had collapsed earlier too, she realized. Stars above - she thought he was begging before!

Varian pointedly stared at the ground to his right as he addressed her.

“Seeing as you’re here, I’m assuming you want to take me back.” Came his monotone attempt at breaking the awkward silence. He began moving slowly with purpose, raising his bare shaky hands in a gesture of compliance. “For what it’s worth, it wouldn’t do much good. It’ll just attract those bandits again. I’m s-“ He stopped himself and closed his eyes with a tilt of his chin. It made Nuru wince. “It’d be better if I was on my way. You can keep Promethius. Ruddiger will find me.” He finished evenly. He looked so tired.

This idiot boy.

Nuru’s arms shook at her sides out of a different kind of anger than Varian was expecting. This became painfully obvious as the princess slowly began reaching towards him, only for the alchemist of flinch back. The wrongness clawed its way into Nuru’s throat and she fought with herself to keep her hand outstretched.

“We can talk about that later, where are you hurt?” In any other situation, Nuru might’ve preened over how steady she managed to keep her voice, but it didn’t matter.

“I’m fine-“ He was cut off by the princess this time.

“Varian look at me.”

It was his turn to wince. Slowly, his gaze turned upward and met the starseer’s eyes.

She could see his thinly veiled distress and he could see her nervous resolve. He relented with a shaky sigh, legs buckling the few inches they had held him from the ground, his arms dropping to his sides.

“Left side. They grazed me.” Came his pitiful explanation. They both knew it was a poor attempt. Nuru took that as her invitation to kneel down beside him, winding his right arm over her shoulder as she snuck a better look at this “graze” and tried hard to keep from tensing up at what she saw.

His thick gloves were shoved into the side of his belt, the thin black leather doing little to cover up the damage, saturated and dripping with blood. Whatever was underneath was certainly not a graze.

_Stupid idiot boy…_

“Well graze or not, it needs attention and it’s getting dark,” She grunted as she hoisted them both to a standing position, training her eyes on the sun’s fading light. “We can be back before nightfall if we get a move on.”

“I can walk on my-“

“Just shut up and start walking, you’re heavier than you look and camp may not be far, but it’s uphill.”

“…W-when we get back, I can-“

“We both know you can’t even look at that cut without passing out _so don’t try fixing it yourself_ , now shut it.”

She felt more than heard his groan. The rest of the trail was spent in relative silence.

———————————————

They made it to camp as the sun fully gave way to twilight, yet it felt far longer than that. Without stopping, Nuru hauled Varian over towards the fire pit ~~her friends~~ they made that morning before setting him down against a nearby log as gently as she could, both completely out of breath from the hike.

Now the hard part began, but where to start?

She hesitated for a long silent moment, arms raised and hovering over the boy’s side, eyes darting from his wound to the clearing, to her dress that was no longer just shades of blue to the-

“N-Nuru.” Varian’s voice broke through the mental fog. The princess started and would’ve made eye contact if the boy didn’t have his head tilted back with eyes angled towards the stars that just began to awaken in the sky. Of course, because if he looked down…

“Take a breath and start the fire. We need light so we can work.” The boy spoke in short bursts, shifting uncomfortably on the ground.

Nuru reached for the tinder box with shaking hands and began trying to light the fire, painfully aware of how she was catching her breath and Varian wasn’t.

After too long the fire ignited, bathing the two in growing light and warmth. Turning towards the alchemist, Nuru felt her throat tighten at the sight of how pale he was.

“Varian, I’m going to take a look at that now ok? But don’t close your eyes and try not to move.” She made sure he was still looking upward when she slowly began lifting the slick gloves from his belt and peeled back his vest, tossing both into a pile behind the log. Nuru tried to ignore the way Varian tensed up, whether from the pain or the caked blood that squelched back with the articles of clothing, frankly, it just didn’t matter right now.

She could see why through the tatters of his shirt. Though it didn’t look deep, the slash was jagged and long, trailing at an angle from the edge of his ribcage to just above his hip. One of those thugs caught him with a pretty forceful downward swing, when had that happened?

At least the gloves counted as some sort of pressure on the deeper end of the cut that was still weeping. Nuru forced herself to look away at the stifled whimper from the boy that was still trying so hard to stay useful even now.

“Fetch my p-pack, the one with the, with the-“ he tried to get up and help like _the stubborn ass_ he was and halted his instruction with a hiss. He could give Promethius a run for his money.

“Don’t move - it’s the bag with the plus sign, I know.” Oh did Nuru know. She had to dip into that medical bag too many times for her to count, but it was always to treat another of Yong’s burnt fingers or a case of poison ivy, not…

Shaking her head, the starseer flew back to the boy’s side after a minimal amount of rifling with the bag, several clean rags, and a bunch of improvised bandages in toe.

The alchemist hunched over on his good side with a wince, managing to unclasp the ornate sun motif buckle, revealing the numerous pockets and bottles inside. Bleary blue eyes side glanced at the contents, fingers failing to properly unfasten one of the larger flasks. His grunt of frustration pulled Nuru from preparing a cloth in a bowl of water she’d just grabbed from the cooking supplies.

“Ursa’s might, stop moving! Which one did you need and why?” They both chose not to bring attention to the break in her voice. The alchemist gave up trying to reach and instead slumped against the log at his back.

“Y’llow… clean the woun’…” Varian’s voice petered out, eyes fluttering. Nuru’s heart plummeted into her gut.

“Hey, HEY! Don’t you fall asleep yet, we’re not done working, remember?” The girl frantically tapped at his cheeks and called his name a total of four times before he roused. This boy needed to stop scaring the daylights out of her today. Tonight? What time was it? How long has it been since they split up? Where were Hugo and Yong? They should be ~~home~~ back by now!

As if on cue, a loud series of booms ricocheted off the neighboring hill with plumes of gunpowder smoke lighting up the night sky above the treetops.

Oh. That answers one question, but opens a whole new can of worms that- another hitched breath shudders out of the shivering boy as Nuru unconsciously wiped at the wound with a third damp cloth - that could be looked into after ~~her friend~~ this person was no longer bleeding out under her care.

What had he said about the bag again? A yellow vial, something to help with the pain maybe?

“Varian? What did you need from the medical bag?” She coaxed.

All she received was a husky groan, skin impossibly pale in the fire light. A short eternity passed until he croaked out an answer.

“Cl’nn n’di… an drss it…” Varian slurred. Tension left his face as his upper body listed to one side. The girl barely had enough wit to catch him and gently guide the downed alchemist fully to the ground.

A silent moment passed and that was all Nuru could take.

“No. No nononono V-Varian come on, we’re not done. YOU’RE NOT DONE.” Her voice rose with her panic, frantically searching his neck for a pulse. She found one as soon as she steadied her hand but it was thready and small.

Like his one word answer she wasn’t ready for back in the clearing. Where she let an injured boy walk away from her after she berated him for things she ~~wouldn’t~~ couldn’t understand instead of listening to what he was about to explain and now she didn’t know if she’d ever-

Another blast of colorful flairs ignited the sky above, closer by the sound of it.

The girl slapped herself, residual blood smearing. She forced air into her lungs and held it there to take back control of her body and mind. A trick she learned from the boy she was trying to save.

Once the world stopped spinning enough to look down, Nuru quickly began combing over the vials inside the medical bag, desperate for anything that sounded close to the alchemist’s description.

Yellow to use with wounds… A healing salve? She quickly checked through the larger pots, breaking several wax seals to check because SOMEONE couldn’t give her a name to go off of- oh wait.

Nuru stopped and checked a bottle she had discarded early on in her mad search. The bottle was thin with a wide, flat bottom. A viscous yellow liquid sluggishly trailed the sides as she rotated the vial in her hand. The worn label read “Calendula oil” in Varian’s handwriting.

Bingo!

It was yellow and its name sounded a lot like what he said just before he- Nuru wasn’t going to dwell on that.

Finally, she felt like she was doing something right!

He had mentioned cleaning the wound. She had already removed the blood and grit. Now, how best to administer the salve? Blast it all, why couldn’t she have been allowed to take lessons in healing along with diplomatic etiquette??

With a frayed huff, the princess settled on pouring the oil into the last spare cloth and the rest into the makeshift bandages before gently working the golden mixture into the wound, wrapping it to the best of her ability.

With more effort than she expected for the second time that day, Nuru hoisted herself onto shaky legs, then Varian up enough to walk/drag the unconscious boy over to his tent and deposit him onto the cot. She straightened his arms and legs, making sure his weight was shifted to his uninjured side. She double checked and refastened his dressings, and sagged to the floor beside him.

Everything suddenly became very quiet. Her mind could register the crickets chirping outside the tents.

She fussed with Varian’s ruined shirt, angry with herself that she hadn’t removed the literal bloody thing before setting him down but it was better left to Hugo she supposed. She hoped the other two boys were safe.

She rearranged Varian’s hair, so his fringe didn’t seem so plastered to his sweaty face. She wondered if he had always looked this young.

Tears belatedly broke free from the dam now that there was nothing to do but clean up and the stars knew this clueless noble girl wasn’t ready to look outside again. Not yet.

So she sat and waited with shaking shoulders, doing nothing but memorizing Varian’s breathing pattern, alert for any changes until her body betrayed her vigilance before first dawn’s light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This only came out so fast because I originally planned for both chapters to be one big piece but I got nervous and split them out of sheer panic... So anyway, next time, we get a better idea on what the other two were up to during this stressful night!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

“You sure those guys are gonna be ok? I mean, they were mean to us, but they looked pretty scared when the first Coronan Candle went off.” Yong asked with no small amount of hesitation.

“Oh trust me Sparks, they had a blast. Alllll the way back to their hideout. Besides, they attacked us first. We were nice enough to let them off easy with some fun and a few spoils.” And by fun, Hugo meant tracking the bandits once they lost the boys’ trail and baited them into a minefield of experimental fireworks. Twice.

Hugo snickered, remembering the leader’s face when the scrubby dumbass realized there was a flare stuffed into his trousers. He hadn’t seen someone try to take their pants off that fast since the last time he picked the pockets in the red light district back in the Iron Capitol! Man that was good money. But back to the present.

“So It’s ok that we took all this?” Yong asked while clumsily fumbling with the knife that he definitely found on his own and did not get from the older boy. Hugo’s tired eyebrows shot up at the accident rapidly approaching reality.

“Nope nope nope, not like that, that’s how you lose a finger. Here, lemme see that. Now watch.” Hugo swiped the blade midair. Damn, Stripes wasn’t kidding, this kid needed constant supervision.

Yong wasn’t even mad that his new trophy was plucked from his grasp, he was far too busy being absolutely fixated on how Hugo could twirl the knife between his fingers so fluidly. He tried to commit every movement to memory.

Hugo took notice and cracked a smirk, giving the knife another midair flick of the wrist before sliding it into its molded leather sheath and handing it back to Yong with a flourish.

“See? Easy once you practice. Just uh, not in front of Big Brother or Mother Dearest, yeah?” The thief winked, dealing a quick noogie to the younger boy. “I’d never hear the end of it.”

“Well why not? I already play with fire.” Yong asked over his shoulder, busying himself with helping Promethius. Apparently he managed to trap his hoof in a tangle of underbrush for the seventh time since the two had rounded back to the Inn where they retrieved the donkey and beloved raccoon.

Hugo takes a long quiet breath.

Their trek back has played out about the same way multiple times thus far: Hugo would make an offhanded comment mostly to himself (he wasn’t used to having an audience) to which Yong would comment with a question, that would ultimately prompt Hugo to wisely change the subject. Rinse and repeat. All through the night.

Did this kid ever get tired?

Where were the more patronly inclined duo anyway? Seeing as he and Firecracker here had been off on a shenanigans expedition throughout the night and the sky was lightening with each footstep, Hugo had expected Goggles and Starry Eyes to be combing the forest for them by now.

Apparently they were taking their sweet old time with it. He was not a babysitter. He was convinced the little pyro didn’t need air to speak since he hasn’t stopped for the last several minutes and counting. Hugo figured it was safe to zone out.

Maybe they weren’t even trying to look for them. From the view they had while descending from the top of the neighboring hill, Hugo could make out the whip of smoke coming from their camp at the bottom of the valley.

What if they were?…

Hugo shook his head and tightened his grip on the bag of spoils. Nope. Not thinking like that. Not while this sleep deprived. Not ever.

(Besides, a boy in that skinny a pair of tailored slacks? Hah! Not a chance in hell.)

But seriously, it was ungodly o’clock and they still had the fire going? Did they not think Hugo knew the way back to their own damn camping site and thought to leave a smoke signal?

The older boy was snapped out of his sleep-drunk train of thought with something long and red being shoved into the visual span of his personal space bubble. Ugh, they had talked about this…

“See Hugo?” Was all the older boy had caught as he came back to the world and decided to roll with it. They were almost back, he could survive a bit longer. But once they were back, Firecracker was Hairstripe’s shadow again.

“Yup, I see it Sparks. How’d you make that one?” Hugo asked with eyes trained straight ahead. That question aught to keep him busy.

As expected, the kid happily sounded off with enough detail concerning his favorite subject that he could’ve held a one boy seminar. He gestured with his hands wildly in front of him as he explained the explosive’s enhanced range and all the new improvements he would implement after seeing them in action earlier the night before. Hugo would never say it out loud, but this kid definitely picked up a thing or two when he imprinted on Sweetcheeks.

Hugo’s lips quirked softly at the thought of the younger alchemist’s ramblings. Maybe he’d find something in this bag of spoils that could get him talking later. He forced himself to not dwell on that thought too long as his smile quickly faded. Another notion that was left niggling at the back of his mind resurfaced not for the first time that night-turned-morning.

What made this group of bandits so keen on hunting their mismatched party in the first place? Their hideout was well appointed with many acquired goods that would’ve easily kept them fed for weeks if they knew how to haggle, so why attack them?

Hugo had to admit, once their attackers managed to break through their formation, he wasn’t sure how the other three would fair in the midst of a true knife fight, but looking back on the blur of action now, it wasn’t full fledged, was it? It was obvious now that they were aiming to incapacitate instead of kill, but why?

Was it Miss Priss herself? A royal ransom would explain why they seemed so intent on pressing through she and Varian’s defenses on the other side of the clearing rather than single out their youngest first…

With that kind of motive, the fellow thief had little doubt their light show’s encore would deter them forever. Maybe Hugo would slip away later to finish the job-

A very messy camp came into view just past the last clumping of trees and ground his thoughts to a halt.

Hugo was lucky the Yong was still coaxing the donkey through the underbrush far enough behind him, otherwise he would’ve smacked into the older alchemist with how quickly he came to a stop as he took everything in at once.

The fire had burned out on its own.

Two of the three tents weren’t properly closed off.

A scattering of vials and bags of supplies were tossed where they fell on the one side of camp.

Blood soaked rags and a half spilled basin of murky water were left discarded a little ways from the bench logs echoed by a much darker much larger puddle sullying the grass just beside it.

A pair of skid marks in the soil lead to Varian’s tent.

“Yong, stay there.” Hugo ordered, breaking into a run.

“Wait Wha-?” Yong began to question it, his footsteps rusting long the edge of the trees.

“Stay there!” Hugo barked it this time as his feet deftly dodged between strewn flasks. He didn’t waste energy on looking back to see if the kid listened, he only had eyes for whatever was inside that tent.

Damn it, if that princess was hurt in the fight with Goggles left to help her, they were all in so much shit.

A startled gasp could be heard from inside as Hugo yanked back the oiled canvas flaps. Two opposing pairs of eyes met after adjusting to the contrast in the light that now flooded the interior of the tent.

“H-Hugo…” The princess’ voice came out with a croak. There was blood on her cheek and clothes. Her hair was unkept and rebelled against her hairband on one side. Her hands buried themselves further into the blanket that covered-

“Varian?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little short and a little rushed due to the holiday and other such things but I'm satisfied with it until I reread it tomorrow morning.
> 
> Anyway, next chapter will have a lot of Mom and Dad fighting with Yong in caught in the middle, and if I get far enough, we might also see why Calendula oil may not have been what Varian was trying to reach for...
> 
> Stay tuned and thanks for reading!


End file.
